Kolo Toure ‘privileged’ to play for Celtic after completing move

CRAIG FORBES

Kolo Toure completed his move to Celtic yesterday and declared: “It’s a privilege to be here.”

Toure, 35, joins the ­Parkhead club on a one-year contract in a move that reunites him with his former Liverpool manager, Brendan Rodgers­, pictured right.

Rodgers, just two months into his managerial reign at Celtic, signed Toure for Liverpool in 2013, following the Ivory Coast player’s previous spells at Manchester City and Arsenal.

Toure told Celtic TV: “I feel really excited because it’s going to be a new challenge for me. I’ve come to one of the biggest clubs in the world and it’s a privilege for me to be here. I know a few friends who play football here and I know what the club has been achieving, winning a lot of trophies and playing Champions League a lot.

“I played with Brendan when he was at Liverpool and when we spoke about the chance for me to come here I was really happy because we know each other for a long time now.”

Rodgers predicted Toure would thrive in Scotland and be a big asset to Celtic. He said: “I brought Kolo into Liverpool to add that bit of experience and help to the centre-halves there at the time. You saw from his impact there and in particular last season, he was a very important player for Jurgen Klopp towards the end of last season, playing in the Europa League final. He was outstanding in the big games for me when I was there. He looks after himself, he’s a wonderful professional.”

Rodgers added on Celtic’s website: “With a lot of young players in our squad, he can really help them and he can be of great assistance for the likes of Scott Brown, who is a wonderful leader.

“But he needs support and help around him as well. It will be nice for Scotty to have someone behind him who has that real big-game experience. ”